Hagley Oval Development

Since rugby encroached onto the cricket season in the early nineties, cricket has been looking for a home for Test, One Day and Provincial cricket.  A temporary facility was provided at QEII but the resolve in the early part of the millennium was to endeavour to provide a ground that was traditional in terms of a cricket oval and was close to the central city.  All test grounds throughout the world are in walking distance from the CBD and entertainment areas of the city and the success of these venues depends largely on the infrastructure that surrounds them.

After a long battle to obtain resource consent and raise the funds for building of the Pavilion, the Hagley Oval cricket re-development was opened by the Prime Minister Mr John Key on Monday 15 September 2014.  The incentive to have this Pavilion in place and ready at this time meant that Christchurch could host the opening game of Cricket World Cup 2015 which in some way compensated for the loss of Rugby World Cup in Christchurch in 2011 after the devastating earthquakes at that time.

Hagley Oval will be beamed all across the world as a showcase for Canterbury in its re-development phase.  It is a first anchor project to be completed in Christchurch and offers a magnificent traditional cricket facility that can be accessed by our visitors by simply walking through our Botanical Gardens to the venue. 

Cricket World Cup itself is the fourth largest televised event in the world and Christchurch will be at the forefront of that tournament for all the right reasons.

The Canterbury Cricket Trust of which Lee Robinson is Chair has driven the funding and the development of the Pavilion and Christchurch now has a world class cricket facility to boast as part of its infrastructural redevelopment post the earthquakes.